Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Read this. Push back on it. My thoughts on teacher job security are definitely evolving. I’m hoping that getting some of these thoughts down will both solidify my thoughts and get some pushback to make them better.

Though what happens on Voxer stays on Voxer, I’d like to dedicate this post to the awesome peeps in my #caedchat moderator Voxer channel. We spent a week going back and forth on tenure in California. They’ve pushed my thinking a ton. These ideas are mine – attack me, not them – but I’m building on the ideas of eight other awesome people. #BetterTogether – always.

Special thanks to John Stevens for reading this post in draft stages. Errors - or downright stupid things - that remain are my mistake, not John’s.

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I got RIFed – reduction in force (basically, fired at the end of the school year because you’re the lowest person with seniority and there are either budgetary or enrollment uncertainties for the next school year) – my first year teaching. It sucked for a lot of reasons, but because I got hired with two good friends to be on a teaching team and we all got RIFed it was a pretty unhappy time. Eventually I got my job back.

I got BTSA support for the first two years I was in the classroom. I had evaluations, but I don’t really remember anything about them. They didn’t particularly push me or challenge me: they got done, and I was rated as satisfactory – or whatever the word is.

I wasn’t RIFed after year two. Which was nice. This meant that after March 15th of year two – I think that was the magic day administrators had to pink slip people by – I was a tenured teacher. Unless I really screwed up, I was going to be back – WITH tenure – for the foreseeable future in my district.

Did I deserve tenure after two years? Probably not. Do I deserve it now, after six years? I’m not sure. I’d like to think I take risks and try new things in my classroom, and I’d like to think that qualities like that make me deserving of some job protection.

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Tenure has afforded me some freedoms, particularly this past year. I was able to live the ‘ask forgiveness, not permission’ maxim because I was tenured. I didn’t do anything illegal or questionable in my room. Everything I did I could defend with my school’s graduate profile or cornerstones, WASC goals, and the Common Core. But I didn’t ask for permission to get rid of tests. Or to spend every Friday of the year on #20time. I just did them because it was that I thought was best for kids. I knew if pushed I could defend them. But I didn’t want to be told no. So I did what I thought was best. To my knowledge, there was very little pushback and in fact a lot of really excited kids and parents.

***

When the Vergara verdict came down, I was initially angry. How dare they – the politicians and judges who haven’t the faintest clue what it is like in a classroom in 2000, much less 2014 (or what is best for kids) – take away this right from me?!? Then I saw a couple friends – people who think divergently and creatively about education – celebrating the end of tenure in California.

And I had to pause and think. I agreed with much of what these ‘down with tenure’ teachers had to say – they were people I’ve collaborated with and have immense professional respect for.

So let’s ditch my preconceived notions about tenure. And really think about what it is, who it protects, and who it hurts.

Does tenure hurt some students? Undoubtedly. Does it protect some bad teachers? Undoubtedly. Does that mean we should get rid of tenure? Maybe. But hear this: good teachers need job protection.

Undoubtedly Vergara will be fought over in court. I’m assuming tenure isn’t quite gone yet. But there are aspects of tenure that need fixing.

So what should job protection look like for teachers look like? Let’s talk about that.

Teachers shouldn’t get tenure day one of year three teaching. Period. That needs to be gone.

What if there was a set of performance-related tasks that teachers needed to demonstrate competency on in order to receive job protection? NONE of this would be related to standardized test scores. Differentiation; working with English language learners; working with special populations within a classroom – GATE students, students with 504s and IEPs, etc; integrating student choice; classroom management; classroom climate; facilitation of collaborative activities for students; collaborative ability within PLCs at your school site; innovative pedagogy; parent and student feedback – this is by no means an exhaustive list, but in order for teachers to get job protection initially they would get four or five years to demonstrate competency in these areas.

Who would the responsibility fall on to get teachers to this point? BTSA mentors would be used the first three years with the work of BTSA time being explicitly mapped at increasing teacher effectiveness in the performance related tasks listed above. These BTSA mentors wouldn’t be doing the evaluations of this teacher - this is still the administrator’s role - but they would be setting up new teachers to have some direct guidance towards their evaluation criteria.

Administrators in the building would need to become the instructional leaders that administrators should be. All evaluations for the first five years of a teacher’s career would be focused on these performance related areas. As the BTSA mentor fades out (remember, just feedback, no evaluation), it is the job of administrators to provide their teachers feedback and professional development opportunities that are specifically tailored to achieve teacher competency in the performance areas.

After teachers get this initial clearance, they get two years of job protection. After this two years is up, teachers could opt for varying levels of job protection: say a two year clearance, a four year clearance, or a six year clearance. Clearly the bar would be higher for a six year clearance than a two year clearance.

Regardless, teachers could choose the level of challenge they want in an evaluation. At the same time, educators get to choose length of job protection that they desired. As teachers get six year clearances, clearly they are leaders on the campus. These teachers are natural places for new or struggling teachers to go to to see master teachers in action.

***

Is this idea fully developed? No. Will it ever happen? Probably not. Do teachers need tenure as it currently exists? No. HOWEVER, good teachers need job protection – not for life, but for periods of time. We need a system that protects good teachers, but allows administrators to get rid of weaker teachers. Perhaps this is an initial offering in that area.

Friday, June 20, 2014

How might we combine the #eduawesome, organic nature of edcamp with the thoughtful process of design thinking? How might we meld these two powerful educational models? And what if the Stanford d school wanted to step up and host an event like this?

How might we…

DON’T YOU WANT TO KNOW? That’s right, you definitely do!

Well, I don’t want to spoil anything, but the edcamp/d school mashup is happening, and I’m really excited about it. I don’t want to give away everything, but suffice it to say if you live in the Bay Area – or if you’re a fan of edcamps and want to buy a plane ticket – you’ll want to keep September 6th open.

We’ve got an awesome team planning #edcampdschool. I’m incredibly jacked to see what the day will hold.

Need more of a teaser? Check out the pictures below of some of the planning we’ve done as we’ve run through trial structures for the day.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time this year to have my students do the TED-style shareouts about their #20time projects that I hoped at the end of this school year: other curricular demands at the end of the year made me second guess asking my students to put together a big presentation at the end of the year.

As I finished my two year loop with my students this year, they were working on a major presentation and paper that traced a theme through the units we had worked through in English and history class for the last two year. It was the right choice to not have another presentation on top of this, so there needed to be a way to share out the awesome that kids had created for their #20time projects.

We did a science fair-style shareout of projects: kids rotated sharing and informally describing and answering questions about their projects. The listeners provided warm feedback to the folks they were listening to.

Pictures and some small descriptions are below. Below that are a few thoughts I have on what #20time will hold next year.

Aiden wrote to sick children

Trey blogged about drawing

Mady, Kelly, and Shayna sharing about the run they organized to raise money for breast cancer

Jacob's refinished skateboard project

Ezra's DIY 3D printer

Eli's T-shirt creations

Emily raised awareness about marginalized students at our school

Tony sharing his snowboard project

A couple groups sharing their blogs

Jasa, a new sport, being shared out

So. Was it worth it, spending every Friday on not history? Absolutely! What changes for next year then? Glad you asked. In no particular order:

I want to start with the month-to-month goal setting much earlier – like from day one of #20time. I will have ninth graders next year. I think that the accountability will help some groups – it definitely helped my tenth graders this past year.

We will be doing the TED style shareout at the end of #20time next year. There is no huge paper/presentation combination at the end of the ninth grade like there is at tenth grade. I am looking forward to emphasizing this presentation from day one: hopefully it will get kids to take pictures and collect artifacts along the way to share out at the end of the year.

I think I will be instituting a critical friends type of grouping that will meet either every other Monday or the first Monday of every month. These critical friend groups will have two complete #20time groups in each set. A #20time group will share out – in two to three minutes – the work they completed on their #20time project the previous months and then will chart what they believe their next month’s work will hold. Then, the listeners will ask clarifying and probing questions about what the presenting group completed and then provide feedback and ideas for a path forward for the next group. I am hoping that this shareout will help keep groups focused but also let fresh but familiar eyes to see the projects and provide feedback.

I think that might be about it. I enjoyed the year of #20time. I’m looking forward to more #20time awesomeness next year!

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About Me

I learn and teach with 9th and 10th graders, mostly about world history. I believe that school should focus on critical thinking and literacy, and my classroom reflects that. I strongly believe that students should be excited about being at school.

I'm interested in effective technology integration in the classroom. I want my classroom to be as student-centered as possible. To that end, I am leveraging inquiry-based learning and a lot of student choice to put students at the center of my classroom.